npaden
Well-known member
Hello everyone. Been lurking on this forum for a bit and decided to go ahead and join.
I grew up in Glasgow, Montana and moved to Texas to go to college and haven't ever made it back. Ended up working for a CPA firm here in Lubbock, Texas and ended up becoming a partner and am pretty much stuck here now. (It's really not that bad of a place anyway)
I first read about this site in Bugle magazine and first logged in checking on the Alaskan coastal black bear hunt on a budget. Something I would like to do in the next couple years as I've never been to Alaska and true spot and stalk bear hunting is about the only bear hunting that really interests me.
I hunted as a kid in Glasgow, but we were strictly meat hunters. We primarily hunted mule deer, but occasionally we would get whitetail doe tags when they were offered. We attempted elk hunting, but weren’t very successful at it. We also did some antelope hunting and did okay at that. When I graduated from High School and moved away to college in Texas I had probably shot 15 or 20 deer, but the largest one was a 3x4 that I scored a few years ago at around 120”. I didn’t even know how to score a deer back then and really didn’t even know you could score a deer. They were a 3x4 with a spread of 20”. That’s as detailed as it got.
I tried to make it back and hunt during college and did make it a few times, but couldn’t afford a buck tag so I would just buy a doe tag and put some meat in the freezer for the parents. My dad continued to hunt and periodically over the years I would go back home and help him out. We connected on a cow elk on one of the trips and a few deer here and there, but the focus was always on filling the freezer.
A few years back my Dad got cancer and died. He was 82 and lived a full life, but I still miss him a lot. As I think back on the time we spent together, most often I come back to the time that we spent together hunting. I remember the hunts during high school, but those hunts that we made over the last few years really were special, just the 2 of us out in God’s country.
When my son was born 3 years ago, just over a year after my Dad passed away, I thought of the memories of my Dad and what kind of memories my son would have of our time together. In Texas you have to own or lease property to hunt as 99.9% of the hunting in Texas is on private property so the first thing I did after he was born was buy some land. Not much, just 160 acres, but that should be plenty of room for us to start out hunting whitetail and wild pigs. I also started realizing how much I missed hunting and really started getting excited about it.
So, in 2007 at the ripe old age of 39, I planned my first ever “trophy” hunt. My Mom is still around and still lives in Glasgow, so I planned it around a visit home. I was lucky to be drawn for both a combo deer/elk tag and an antelope tag so I decided to do a deer/antelope combo hunt. I remembered the area pretty well and I was into antelope right off the bat. I had planned pretty well for the trip and was in shape and after some decent shoe leather time, I had a nice representative antelope on the ground DIY on public land on the 2nd day of the hunt. It was late in the season for antelope so there weren’t any monsters left around, but I had a nice buck and was happy with it.
This is still one of my favorite hunting pictures.
After connecting on the antelope, my focus went to Mule deer, and I visited several of our old hunting spots. Since antlers were the priority this time and not meat, I passed up over two dozen small bucks over the next few days before finding a decent 4x4 and pulling the trigger on him on the 3rd day of deer hunting.
He wasn’t a monster but scored out right at 145” and I was happy with him. He was the biggest buck I had ever shot by far.
One unusual thing was that the deer had warts all over it's face. First time I had ever seen anything like it. I took it to Fish and Wildlife in Glasgow and they said it wasn't a big deal and was still safe to eat so I went ahead and ate it and that was 4 years ago so I guess it turned out safe!
Since that foray back into hunting in 2007, I’ve shot 3 decent whitetail bucks on my place in Texas (one was aged at 8.5 years old although it only scored 112”), shot my first bull elk in Wyoming (245” 5x5), and shot a 180” Mule deer in New Mexico. My son is still too young to actually go out on my hunts with me, but he seems pretty excited when I bring the trophies home. Here is a picture of us with my 2009 New Mexico Mule Deer before I took it to the taxidermist.
I keep my butchering skills in shape with wild pigs, I have killed close to two dozen wild pigs since I bought the land just over 3 years ago. Most of my friends and family think that I am totally obsessed with hunting, but comparing myself with some of you, I’m not that bad at all!
This year was my best hunting season yet. I connected on two bull elk, one in Wyoming and one in New Mexico, plus a nice mule deer in New Mexico as well. Still nothing in the trophy books, but the New Mexico elk was a trophy enough to me that it is going to end up on my wall.
I post some on www.monstermuleys.com and also on www.qdma.com where I try to refine my skills as a habitat manager for my property here in Texas. The hunting here is nearly the polar opposite of most western spot and stalk hunting, but it does take time and effort and isn't shooting fish in a barrel like I originally thought it would be.
I logged all of my hunts and most of my prep work and scouting in the Hunt Adventure Challenge forum this year and was very suprised to win some great gear from the Outdoorsmans for my efforts. If you want to read through my year you are more than welcome to check it out. http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID50/23.html
You might notice that I stole some of my introduction here from that thread, but it saved having to type it up again.
Looking forward to learning more and more every day. Maybe I'll be able to contribute a little bit while I'm here as well.
Well, I guess that’s my official introduction.
Nathan
I grew up in Glasgow, Montana and moved to Texas to go to college and haven't ever made it back. Ended up working for a CPA firm here in Lubbock, Texas and ended up becoming a partner and am pretty much stuck here now. (It's really not that bad of a place anyway)
I first read about this site in Bugle magazine and first logged in checking on the Alaskan coastal black bear hunt on a budget. Something I would like to do in the next couple years as I've never been to Alaska and true spot and stalk bear hunting is about the only bear hunting that really interests me.
I hunted as a kid in Glasgow, but we were strictly meat hunters. We primarily hunted mule deer, but occasionally we would get whitetail doe tags when they were offered. We attempted elk hunting, but weren’t very successful at it. We also did some antelope hunting and did okay at that. When I graduated from High School and moved away to college in Texas I had probably shot 15 or 20 deer, but the largest one was a 3x4 that I scored a few years ago at around 120”. I didn’t even know how to score a deer back then and really didn’t even know you could score a deer. They were a 3x4 with a spread of 20”. That’s as detailed as it got.
I tried to make it back and hunt during college and did make it a few times, but couldn’t afford a buck tag so I would just buy a doe tag and put some meat in the freezer for the parents. My dad continued to hunt and periodically over the years I would go back home and help him out. We connected on a cow elk on one of the trips and a few deer here and there, but the focus was always on filling the freezer.
A few years back my Dad got cancer and died. He was 82 and lived a full life, but I still miss him a lot. As I think back on the time we spent together, most often I come back to the time that we spent together hunting. I remember the hunts during high school, but those hunts that we made over the last few years really were special, just the 2 of us out in God’s country.
When my son was born 3 years ago, just over a year after my Dad passed away, I thought of the memories of my Dad and what kind of memories my son would have of our time together. In Texas you have to own or lease property to hunt as 99.9% of the hunting in Texas is on private property so the first thing I did after he was born was buy some land. Not much, just 160 acres, but that should be plenty of room for us to start out hunting whitetail and wild pigs. I also started realizing how much I missed hunting and really started getting excited about it.
So, in 2007 at the ripe old age of 39, I planned my first ever “trophy” hunt. My Mom is still around and still lives in Glasgow, so I planned it around a visit home. I was lucky to be drawn for both a combo deer/elk tag and an antelope tag so I decided to do a deer/antelope combo hunt. I remembered the area pretty well and I was into antelope right off the bat. I had planned pretty well for the trip and was in shape and after some decent shoe leather time, I had a nice representative antelope on the ground DIY on public land on the 2nd day of the hunt. It was late in the season for antelope so there weren’t any monsters left around, but I had a nice buck and was happy with it.
This is still one of my favorite hunting pictures.
After connecting on the antelope, my focus went to Mule deer, and I visited several of our old hunting spots. Since antlers were the priority this time and not meat, I passed up over two dozen small bucks over the next few days before finding a decent 4x4 and pulling the trigger on him on the 3rd day of deer hunting.
He wasn’t a monster but scored out right at 145” and I was happy with him. He was the biggest buck I had ever shot by far.
One unusual thing was that the deer had warts all over it's face. First time I had ever seen anything like it. I took it to Fish and Wildlife in Glasgow and they said it wasn't a big deal and was still safe to eat so I went ahead and ate it and that was 4 years ago so I guess it turned out safe!
Since that foray back into hunting in 2007, I’ve shot 3 decent whitetail bucks on my place in Texas (one was aged at 8.5 years old although it only scored 112”), shot my first bull elk in Wyoming (245” 5x5), and shot a 180” Mule deer in New Mexico. My son is still too young to actually go out on my hunts with me, but he seems pretty excited when I bring the trophies home. Here is a picture of us with my 2009 New Mexico Mule Deer before I took it to the taxidermist.
I keep my butchering skills in shape with wild pigs, I have killed close to two dozen wild pigs since I bought the land just over 3 years ago. Most of my friends and family think that I am totally obsessed with hunting, but comparing myself with some of you, I’m not that bad at all!
This year was my best hunting season yet. I connected on two bull elk, one in Wyoming and one in New Mexico, plus a nice mule deer in New Mexico as well. Still nothing in the trophy books, but the New Mexico elk was a trophy enough to me that it is going to end up on my wall.
I post some on www.monstermuleys.com and also on www.qdma.com where I try to refine my skills as a habitat manager for my property here in Texas. The hunting here is nearly the polar opposite of most western spot and stalk hunting, but it does take time and effort and isn't shooting fish in a barrel like I originally thought it would be.
I logged all of my hunts and most of my prep work and scouting in the Hunt Adventure Challenge forum this year and was very suprised to win some great gear from the Outdoorsmans for my efforts. If you want to read through my year you are more than welcome to check it out. http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID50/23.html
You might notice that I stole some of my introduction here from that thread, but it saved having to type it up again.
Looking forward to learning more and more every day. Maybe I'll be able to contribute a little bit while I'm here as well.
Well, I guess that’s my official introduction.
Nathan
